(no subject)
I think there's some sort of limit the universe has put on how many awesome things can happen in one day. There's probably also some sort of counter-cool-thing number that has to occur for the stars to be in balance at the end of things, too. Oh well.
So today there was a Taekwondo tournament for me. I got there eight-thirty, and, when the program started and each team stood in a line before the judge's table with the teachers beside them to listen to the introduction and greeting and stuff, I noticed that I recognized someone I hadn't seen in a very long time two rows over. He had been something of an assistant gymnastics teacher back in those days before I switched to Taekwondo. Now he's apparently teaching Tang So Do. (Like Taekwondo, but not.) I remember having enjoyed his classes (when he'd sometimes stand in for our regular teacher) a lot, and having appreciated his methods. When I watched him and his team warm up after the greeting I saw he still seemed to have that same energy. Before I left I got his number, and the times and place his classes are at. After all, one of the main reasons I haven't jumped ship from my current Taekwondo class is that I still want to do that kind of thing, but I had nowhere else to go. Now I do. :3
Yeah, so then we all sat through the kid's fights for around five or six hours until the youth fights started. My fight was going to be third, but they bumped it up to tenth, and switched the person I was fighting with. (Which was just as well, I guess--I hadn't ever been able to actually figure out who I'd be fighting, so I had no real opportunity to psyche myself up to face her.) My fight turned out to be against one of the girls on that awesometeacher's teams. She knows a different strain of martial arts than what I've been studying, and I think she was about half a rank above me, or so.
How'd the fight go? I'd describe it as 'Holy. /CRAP/.'
She was like a machine, and just kept going and going and going. By the end of the first round I was so tired I was having trouble walking. Everything was set up almost like a boxing ring, so my 'coach' (A green belt who I'd sparred with a handfull of times in class before) gave me a few tips of advice, and the teacher came over and gave me some too. I noticed that he hadn't done that with anyone else, and I was grateful for the attention. When the fight resumed, though, soon I was just trying not to take any hits. I was able to get in one good solid one using the greenbelt's advice, though, and that was cool. The score for the first round was three to four, her favor, and the final score was four to six. Afterwards she went on to another fighting partern, which I left before I could see, so instead of getting silver or something I got bronze.
I don't care. That fight was crazy. I thought she was amazing, and she deserved to win that fight. On a different angle, I want to be in her class now, and personally I think having a maximum of a twenty minute commute instead of an hour to go would be awesome. Her class also goes on longer than mine does; sure, I travel for two or three hours, not counting how long I wait around for my ride and stuff, but the class itself lasts only about an hour. She also works in much higher elevation, so her freakish stamina was probably helped by that.
Anyway, by the end of the second round I was so tired I could barely stand. Before I left I asked one of her classmates to tell her congradulations for me, and then I staggered out and ate cookies to console myself on the way home. I hadn't had lunch, after all, and my fight was at two in the afternoon. After six hours of waiting.
In conclusion to it all, my talley is pretty rounded off now. I met the teacher, got a good look at his class and what kind of people I might be working with if I joined, got my ass royally kicked, and blew six hours waiting for it to happen.
Now we just gotta wait for tomorrow, for the junior youth end-of-the-year-and-Panama-Mother's-Day-presentation. Won't /that/ be hectic...
Peace Out.